Council Announces Revised Committee Assignments

The Legislative Council has announced committee assignments, including all of the heads and vice-chairmen who were elected during a Wednesday meeting at the .

One revision to the assignments came Friday after council Chairman Jeff Capeci contacted council member Phil Carroll, who initially had been placed on the education committee.

Carroll is a Newtown school bus driver and owner-operator. The owner-operators have a in which they argue they are employees of the Board of Education rather than independent contractors.

Last year, council vice chairman Mary Ann Jacob following the advice of the town attorney, who opined that Jacob's part-time employment as a Sandy Hook School library clerk might present a potential conflict of interest during some committee discussions.

Capeci, who was asked by Newtown Patch Thursday whether the town attorney's recommendation also would apply to Carroll, said he failed to consider Carroll's employment when making the committee assignment. On Friday, he contacted Carroll regarding the issue, Capeci said.

"When I called Phil this morning to discuss the issue with him, he brought the subject up to me," Capeci said in an e-mail sent to council members later in the day.

Following that conversation, Carroll was re-assigned to the ordinance committee and Dan Honan agreed to move to the education committee, Capeci said.

Carroll said Friday he had initially expressed interest in the education committee because he has attended many Board of Education meetings and believed he could contribute in the committee discussion.

"I was thinking they could use me as a resource," Carroll said.

But Carroll said after putting more thought into the matter, he also didn't want questions to be raised about his role on the committee and his employment as a bus driver.

"I don't want to get into the fray that is needless fray," he said.

While not serving on the education committee, Carroll still can participate in budget discussions and cast a vote as part of the council.

Below are the committee assignments.

Finance/Administration

• Chairman: George Ferguson
• Vice Chairman: Kathy Fetchick
• Mary Ann Jacob
• Dan Wiedemann
• Dan Amaral
• Mitch Bolinsky

Ordinance

• Chairman: Mary Ann Jacob
• Vice Chairman: Mitch Bolinsky
• Joe Girgasky
• Robert Merola
• Jeff Capeci
• Phil Carroll

Education

• Chairman: Kathy Fetchick
• Vice Chairman: Dan Wiedemann
• George Ferguson
• Paul Lunquist
• Dan Honan
• Jeff Capeci

Municipal Operations

• Chairman: Robert Merola
• Vice Chairman: Dan Amaral
• Joe Girgasky
• Dan Honan
• Paul Lundquist
• Phil Carroll